New Delhi: With Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s term coming to an end on July 24, the Election Commission of India has announced that voting for the presidential election, if one is required, will be held on July 17.
The counting of votes will begin on July 20.
“The Election Commission will issue a notification for conducting presidential election on June 14. The last date for nominations is June 28. The date for scrutiny of the nomination is June 30. And the last date for withdrawal of nomination is July 1,” Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi told media.
The voting will begin at 10 am on July 17 and will go on till 5 pm. The counting of votes will begin at 11 am on July 20.
“The election will also be held on the same date for the post of Vice-President,” Zaidi added.
President Pranab Mukherjee’s term ends on July 24.
Till date, no party has come up with a presidential candidate. Hectic political parleys are on but Opposition parties are yet to announce the name of a presidential candidate.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has indicated that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi would like to choose a nominee acceptable to its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Party president Amit Shah said his party will consult others but did not commit to a consensus candidate.
BJP move
“Consensus is a word that is used in several ways. But we will hold discussions with everybody, including opposition parties,” he said last week.
On Monday Shah formed a three-member panel of senior ministers to start consulting allies on the next president.
Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu are part of the panel that will build consensus around BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s candidate.
The opposition, however, will wait for the government to make the first move. But some opposition leaders like Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee believe the government should attempt to nominate a candidate who most parties agree on, so that an election could be avoided.
Meanwhile, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has been holding discussions with opposition parties to decide on a joint candidate.
The Congress Working Committee chaired by Gandhi met in New Delhi last week to discuss the upcoming presidential poll. However, no decision was made on party’s candidate for the presidential election.
In May last week, Gandhi had invited opposition leaders for a luncheon to discuss names of probable candidates. However, the group of leaders failed to arrive at any consensus.
Interestingly, parties such as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have already expressed their readiness to support a BJP-sponsored candidate.
Congress allies
On the other hand, the Congress can count on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Janata Dal (United), Left parties and Trinamool Congress.
Earlier, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar ruled himself out of the presidential race.
“I am not keen to be in the race for President House. I already told the Opposition parties in very clear terms that for me, it is a closed chapter. ‘Main iss contest mein nahin hoon, mujhe rajneeti se itni jaldi retire hona nahin hai’ [I am not in this contest, I don’t want to retire from politics this soon],” he said last week.
